Misogyny in Hip-Hop (and Other Genres)

“’I definitely think generally rap is misogynistic,’ he said, after a pause. ‘Not that that’s justifying the culture.’” -Kanye West, in an interview with The Guardian.

It remains a pervasive trend in music, and our contemporary society, that the woman is marginalized, and is often the negative end of the archaic philosophy that suggests “it’s just the way things are.”

Throwback to the 50’s- and I say the 50’s not because of my (nonexistent) knowledge of the 20th century, but because of the indisputable gender dynamic that was in place since the dawn of time, and by extension, this includes the 50’s- where whistling at women and luring them in with “Darlin’s” and “Hello, Gorgeous’” was an acceptable, quotidian occurrence. Consider the idea that less than 100 years ago (1920), women weren’t able to vote in elections.

While these are both tangential to the portrayal of women in music, the notion that women are second class citizens plays into the dynamic that’s very transparent in the media; be it in music, in movies (See: “Damsel in Distress” films), Television, News Reports, Sports, and many more. Portrayal and representation in popular culture play integral roles in gender roles, considering the ubiquity of it in our technological age coupled with our tendency to unconsciously imitate what’s seen and heard on a daily basis. Layer that on top of the environment- and when I say environment, what I really mean is the people in the environment, as their the ones holding the ideologies- that certain people, no matter the sex or gender, grow up in, and you have dissolute concepts regarding the way the sexes are supposed to interact with each other.

So now we arrive at music, an ample form of entertainment, that’s been present for a very, very long time. While all music falls victim to misogynistic tendencies, we’re going have an in depth look at hip-hop, one of my favorite genres of music.

In a piece entitled Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings by Ronald Weitzer and Charis E. Kubrin, the two authors begin with an introduction to their theory, further examining the criteria of “masculinity,” and how it relates to the “subservient” and “inferior” idea of femininity, and the juxtaposition of the two in social interaction.

“…it involves ‘‘the currently most honored way of being a man, it requires all other men to position themselves in relation to it, and it ideologically legitimates the global subordination of women to men. This type of masculinity, to be a ‘‘man,’’ requires the acceptance of attitudes that objectify women, practices that subordinate them, and derogation of men who adopt an egalitarian orientation equally affirmative of men and women and all sexual orientations.”

The environment, lower income neighborhoods, where machiavellian ideals prevail, is the enabler for members of the patriarchy to act in a sanctimonious manner to women. Ostensibly, if the opposite is done- treating women with respect- then the assumption made is that the “respecter” is violating one of the many unwritten tenets of masculinity, and is thus less of a male, or not considered to be one. Translate that into music, and the result is the mask of a message suffused with misogyny and hypermasculinity; since the only way to sell and stay true to the masculine roots, is by espousing the same ideas that you grew up around.

Weitzer and Kubrin also suggest that artists may receive pressure from the record labels. They theorize the following:

“Rap artists are also influenced by pressures from elites in the music industry. To maximize sales, record industry moguls encourage provocative, edgy lyrics. Producers not only encourage artists to become ‘‘hardcore’’ but also reject or marginalize artists who go against the grain. As a result of such practices, a directly proportional relationship has developed between rap music’s explicitness and the sale of its records.”

Easily accessible lyrics are always bound to sell more records, because, generally, people are going to want to listen to a song and understand both the idea and lyrics of the song in one- at most, two- listens. Furthermore, what better way to sell a rap record than making the lyrics of the song a hyperbolized caricature of a masculine personality; emotionally distant, heavy drug/alcohol use (more on that later), the reduction of the woman, etc. Sometimes, when the criteria of knowledge isn’t met, what instead happens is the transformation of the song’s meaning into a concept that fills that void of the insufficiently explained. An example of the interesting case of the “watered down lyric” is in Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools (Drank)” off good kid m.A.A.d city. What was an emotionally laced song about alcoholism and medication, and the prevalence of it in Lamar’s life was morphed, by the public, into a song endorsing drinking; high school parties and bars alike viced out to this song late at night to color the debaucherous evening. The simplicity of the lyric is sold, not the message.

In plenty of cases ,there is no underlying message. The issue is that the meaning that the listener can immediately hear can be an immoral one- one with misogynistic implications, anti-gay implications (throwback to Buju Banton’s “Boom Bye Bye”), and much, much more.

Furthermore, the fact that hypermasculinity runs rampant in lower income neighborhoods- where one’s self-worth needs to be proven and earned as a result of a lack of proper resources, care from the government, and the population being criminalized without being criminals- it’s inevitable that some songs being made are going to be a reflection of the environment the artist is familiar with.

Barring environmental influence, the gender dynamic that we are all surrounded by is the biggest factor. While I chose to focus on rap, lyrics where women are put down are a part of plenty different genres of music, a result of the aforementioned gender relations. From the wage gap, to oversexualization in everyday life, to stereotyping, women are marginalized in plenty of different aspects on the micro and macro levels.

It’ll be interesting to see how the increasing attention that feminism is receiving, and a rising number progressive artists will play into the future of lyricism across all genres of music.

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